The present invention relates generally to household appliance fixture installation devices and more particularly to range-hood electrical connection arrangements which provide portal disk devices for preliminary mechanical connection of power cables before the cables are finally attached to range-hood assemblies.
Over the last several years, the use of canopy type range-hoods has increased in both house and apartment usage to the extent that the range-hood is no longer seen as a frivolous luxury but rather as a necessary kitchen accessory.
With the expanded usage of the range-hood as a necessary kitchen appliance for the exhausting of smoke and vapor filled air, or in the case of ductless range-hoods through which the air is re-filtered and exhausted back into the cooking area, means have been sought for facilitating electrical connections of such range-hoods. In the past, the incoming power circuitry to the hoods would often have to be attached while maintaining the range-hood assembly in a fixed position against a wall or soffit and simultaneously mechanically and electrically connecting the power cable directly to the range-hood assembly.
While many mechanical cable attachment devices have been developed over the years, few, if any, have addressed themselves to the preliminary wiring connection of a relatively large wall or soffit mountable appliance fixture so as to simplify the electrical wiring and mechanical attachment of the power cable to the fixture, as well as the attachment of the grounding wire.
One example of the prior art in the area of facilitated wiring connection is the use of the pre-wired recessed lighting housings used with recessed lighting fixtures. The pre-wired recessed housings were developed years ago to enable an installer of such a lighting fixture to quickly and easily connect ceiling wiring to the fixture without having to connect the abode's wiring directly into a fixture housing with conventional connectors. The pre-wired housing consists of a BX cable assembly fabricated directly to a housing, enabling the installer to simply connect two leads emanating from the outside of the pre-wired housing to the two leads exposed behind the fixture. The pre-wired assembly provides an already attached incoming circuitry device, consisting of sheathed flexible armored cable, which had been pre-coiled and attached to the outside of the fixture housing, protruding into the housing itself and terminating with a rigidly attached socket device so that after completion of the preliminary wiring attachment outside the housing assembly, no incoming leads had to be affixed directly to the housing container, since the secure incoming lead placement was already pre-attached to the housing.
Before the use of such pre-wired recessed lighting housing devices, an installer would have to feed the abode's emanating cable through an orifice located on the housing box itself, secure this incoming cable fixedly to the housing through the use of BX connectors or other various securing devices, and then wire the emanating leads of the incoming cable to the leads coming off of the socket assembly within the housing itself. The pre-wired device eliminates the need for electrical connection within the fixture housing as well as the need to secure any incoming cable to the metallic perimeter of the housing assembly. All that is required is an initial link-up on the outside of the housing assembly through the attachment of the externally exposed housing assembly leads, to the externally exposed abode's electrical conducting means. Once this connection is made, final positioning and attachment of the recessed lighting housing is accomplished without further wiring connection, enabling the immediate use of the fixture.
Apparently, only a few relatively easy to install "electricity requiring" appliances have had devices developed to facilitate their installation by not requiring an installer to directly affix the abode's wiring leads to the appliances, but rather to a preliminary attachment connection device, to which a grounding wire can be attached, and then finally to the appliances. The industry is still searching for means for facilitating the actual installer's effort on fixtures such as range-hood assemblies which are more cumbersome, and thus more difficult to simultaneously wire, ground, and position manually.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide preliminary link-up means for simplifying and facilitating the installation of range-hood assemblies by preliminarily attaching an abode's power lines and external armored sheathing or conducting means, as well as a grounding means, to a preliminary link-up device. This installation procedure makes it totally unnecessary to hold the entire range-hood assembly in position while simultaneiously connecting the hood to electrical power lines. The preliminary connection device affords a preliminary link-up which is finally attached to the range-hood assembly with the electric cable already attached and grounded.
Attachment of the pre-wired portal disk is accomplished by the installer, through the hinging and pivoting of a first side of the disk while the second side is secured through the use of a fastener device.
It is therefore the over-all object of the present installation device to allow successful, secure, and attractive electrical connection of an abode's electrical conducting means to the manufacturer's range-hood with little effort and in minutes from the time the range-hood is unpacked to the time it is ready for functional use over a cooking area.